The kindness of strangers

[Chelle63 958]

@ CC apples and oranges tut tut...

[Crack_Cocaine 27]

Yes you're right, sorry. I forgot to mention - and keeping in tune with the topic - that the bad situation I was in was me being in Berlin.

[SebAus 11]

 

the hubby also managed to get himself stuck in the sand again in a Hummer I just think he cant drive...we were helped again...apparently when stuck in sand you need to flatten the tires some and then its easy to get out...you live and learn...

If you have a winch and are stuck in the sand, you can always attach the winch to the spare tyre, bury the tyre relatively deeply in the sand and winch yourself out that way. The pressure from the sand on the tyre (if burried deep enough) will act as an anchor and allow you to tow yourself out.

 

EDIT:

 

 

Of course, if you have nowhere to anchor the winch, it's useless. You can make an anchor out of star pickets, logs or a spare wheel sunk into the ground, but this is pretty extreme stuff and, like the whole subject of winching techniques, is best learned from a professional.

from: https://www.mynrma.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/mynr...wd_recovery.htm

[Dr. Yes 0]

 

Yes you are right, medical personnel, police and rescue personnel, along with military usually own their own 4x4's just so they can get to work on the bad days and help others out without being asked.

Nothing to do with the size of their genitalia then? ^_^

[perdido 6,083]

I was in Paia and my local camera dealer was gone. So I went two days without film. Then I met the guy staying in the room next to me and hung out with him. Right before he flew back to the mainland he said "I know your from portland so I am giving you this". It was film and it came witha camera sweet.

[Steven192 272]

Middle of Paris last year. We were driving across to La Rochelle and stopped off in Paris for a couple of hours sightseeing.

So found a car park and then a bus stop. Looking at the map on the wall of the bus stop and wondering exactly how best to get to the Eifel tower etc.

 

All of a sudden this oriental looking guy with his family asks us, in pretty good English, if we need help. So we explain and he then tells us that he is off back to Thailand today, in fact he was waiting for the bus to take him and his family to the airport, so would we like to have 1)his map of Paris with all the bus/tube lines marked 2)his 1 month ticket for bus/tube valid for 4 people for another 5 days and 3) one unused ticket for the Louvre (he apolgised! that it was only for 1 person but his youngest hadn't wanted to go.

 

To say I was godsmacked is an understatement. I obviously offered to pay for all this stuff but he said that it would only go to waste otherwise and I was welcome to it.

 

So thanks unknown Thai bloke and we had a great day and I passed the train ticket on to some guy begging outside the tubestation before I left.

[marie-claire 2,091]

The greatest act of "kindness by a stranger" ever:

 

 

 

R.I.P Don Ritchie

[kristyandpaul 348]

What a lovely thread, and what a lovely bloke that Don Ritchie was - RIP.

 

It's threads like this that cheer the human spirit on a strange grey day. I always try to help others and have been helped by others also, it's the way I was raised. People are people, it's that simple.

[john g. 37,776]

What a man! That has brought tears to my eyes. Bless you! RIP.

[Chelle63 958]

I have another story this time in Bavaria, 2 weeks ago we booked a room at a Hotel in Linden since we had a 50th birthday party to attend, our friend promised to come get us at the nearest train station but didn't make it on time, so we were stranded at the station, no bus or taxi in sight, hubby walks across the street to the nearest restaurant to ask if we could find some sort of ride to our hotel, and the woman said its ok my sister will drive to there...so off we went, thanked her to death, and tried to give her some money, she said no thank you, this is what people in the south do.

 

Bless!!, who said Bavarian's are rude and stuck up :)

[sarabyrd 18,767]

Permit me to retaliate with my story about Hamburg: There I was (in pre-TT-times, not knowing a soul in the city), Rathausgeburtstag 1997, at the Rathausplatz, intending to go to an Irish pub in the evening. I asked two chatty lizzies sitting on the steps next to me if they knew the place I wanted to go to; they didn't but flagged the nearest policeman.

 

He heard the name of the pub, looked at me and said, "You don't want to go there, it's smutty (schmuddelig)", and sent me somewhere else instead where I had a whale of a time, met some great people and hugely enjoyed myself.

 

Nix s-teife Nordlichter, very friendly, caring and hell-bent to help a foreigner in a Dirndl to have a fabulous stay in their city.

[Cadbury 591]

Twenty years ago, when I was young and much more foolish, I was driving from my parents place in Toronto to my home in Northern Ontario. For those who know the area, it was Highway 60. For those who don’t, imagine trees, two lanes and towns few and far between, no streetlights, windy roads, the odd rock face, and signs warning you of moose and deer crossing. And then more trees. It is really in the middle of nowhere. It was past midnight and I had not seen a car for ages. Unfortunately, my eyes dipped for a second and the next thing I next I had driven the car into a ditch and rolled it several times, landing upside down. Immediate panic and adrenaline set in as I smelled gas and I got out. Thankfully, the car was not on fire but I was bleeding from cuts on my head.

 

I just started running down the road like a madman. After some distance a car drove up and stopped as I was, literally, the deer in the headlights. I looked a right mess and I must have been in shock and could not speak clearly. They must have thought I was crazy. They carried on driving and when they got to my upturned car they saw what had happened and turned around and came back for me. They insisted I get in the car and calmed me down. They drove me some distance to the nearest police station (which was closed) and they called for the police to come and an ambulance. I cannot recall how long it took but they stayed with me until I was in the ambulance.

 

To this day I cannot recall their faces and don’t know their names, but wherever you both are THANKS A MILLION!!

[trybefore 6]

I'm relatively old now, hate to admit it, but I've enjoyed the help of strangers so many times in my life in so many countries. Always felt that 98.5% of the population of anywhere were good people. I have also tried to pay life back by helping many others. In some cases even with money, although I never saw a penny of it back. I would like to believe in Karma....

[loz_adele 840]

These are great stories! But Cadbury, although it was really nice what those people did for you, I can't believe they left you the first time! I get that they might have been freaked out but bloody hell, if I was driving down some middle of nowhere road and came across some one bleeding from the head, I wouldn't be driving off and leaving them there.

[Rossoneri 2,410]

One of the nicest stories I have ever read...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12043294

[marie-claire 2,091]

Such a lovely story Rossoneri.

[Writer Dave 86]

Back in November of '94 I was hitching between Montreal and Sackville. I got dropped by a boarded up motel at a nowhere junction on the TransCan, in the middle of the sticks in New Brunswick. Traffic was nonexistent, and the light was beginning to fail, and I was seriously considering kicking in a window on that motel to get out of the wind and not freeze to death, when an old, battered pickup stopped to pick me up.

 

The driver was an old man in work clothes and a baseball cap, speaking in a rural New Brunswick accent that I could barely follow (and I'm a born and raised Maritimer). It turned out he'd just got out of the pen after 25 years inside, and had caught Catholicism when he was there. Now in Canada, 25 years before parole means that he was a very, very bad man in his previous existence, but at to me he remains the closest thing I've encountered to a saint.

 

He insisted that he take me to "Nimunson", which I later worked out was Edmundston, and he took me to the soup kitchen where he volunteered. He served me with a hot meal (actually served me at a table in the meal hall) and then excused himself to go talk to the priest. When he came back, he had money from the petty cash and took me to the bus station and bought me a ticket for the rest of my journey.

 

No questions, no preaching, no judgements- just a man who had true compassion. I still think of him whenever I start to lose faith in humanity, and try to do my bit to help others the way he helped me.

[john g. 37,776]

Lovely story, Writer Dave! Though sickened on a daily basis by war in the world, vicious crime, man´s inhumanity to man etc, I too have been lucky on so many an occasion. MANY! That´s why my idealism still survives..tough though it is.

 

Too many stories to tell ( and other people´s are surely more interesting ) but one I remember right now: I was hitchhiking in Detroit in the middle of the night ( yes! Ok, it was 1973 ) and a black guy stopped in his car and said " are you damn crazy man? White guy here at this time of night? Where are you going? Me: Canada.

 

He drove me to the bridge to Canada, shook his head, gave me 2 dollars and a bottle of rum and his phone number! I walked across the bridge ( apparently impossible these days )...even the Canadian border guys thought I was weird! I still remember him and many of his ilk.

 

I hope he is alive and well and kicking!

 

Thanks, man. You made the difference that night. As have many others in my life...but I despair despite that. Maybe I´m just getting old...

[kiplette 8,795]

We had a crash returning to Germany from the UK last winter, and when the car had stopped pirouetting against the crash barriers, the car behind stopped, and a lovely chap got out to check we were all OK, and did everything for me - triangle, police calls, finding the kids a good 'safe' spot to wait, lending a coat to one whose coat was not accessible in the car..he stayed with us all through the nice ambulancemen, the very grumpy policemen, and only left when the jolly abschlepp chaps turned up. Lovely, lovely man.

 

The ADAC were utterly useless to us (even as 'plus' members) because the car was written off and there were too many of us (!?), and the next hero of the night was the owner of the garage who had collected us - he and his mitarbeiter kept us at their werkstatt, phoning and arguing with the ADAC at half hour intervals until about 4 hours later when he threatened (out of our earshot) to put us out into the snow (1 o'clock in the morning) and ADAC then dealt with us. Our dramas carried on in the morning, and they again fought on our behalf. Amazing guys - we sent them 'Heroes' (big box) to say thank you.

 

It is so wonderful when people go way beyond the call of duty.

[artemisia 77]

It's occurred to me while reading many other threads on TT (and in other forums, for that matter) that so many 'kind strangers' give their time and effort to help others by offering advice and sharing their own stories and insights--usually without expecting anything in return. Their suggestions often help not only the OP, but many others who go sesarching for information on the same topic.

 

Thanks to everyone who has done this!